230 THE BIRDS 01 NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



poultry-keeping have become general, it has become 

 absolutely necessary to keep down the numbers of 

 this beautiful but most mischievous marauder, and 

 the natural caution of the genus Corvus has reached 

 its fullest development in the once semi-domestic 

 " Mag." We do not consider, however, that the 

 Magpie is such a determined enemy to the preserver 

 of game as the Jackdaw, and the present species has 

 at least the strong plea of very great beauty in 

 extenuation of its oiFences, though we fear that, in 

 common with some other animals, it can produce no 

 other " set off." It is true that the Magpie searches 

 the backs of cattle for maggots, but I am assured by 

 an experienced tenant-farmer in our neighbourhood 

 that he considers this remedy worse than the disease, 

 as the Magpies in the search for maggots acquire a 

 taste for beef, and cause hideous sores which are 

 difficult to treat. There are few things that this bird 

 will not devour or carry off for future use or amuse- 

 ment, so that it is quite possible that it may occa- 

 sionally destroy some noxious animals without 

 inflicting harm upon the innocent or valuable, but 

 our experience is that the favourite insect food of 

 the Magpie consists of the grubs of scavenger beetles. 

 We have no fear in this county of exterminating the 

 Magpie as long as our vast ranges of unpreserved 

 wood and fenced pasture-lands exist in their present 

 condition, and furnish secure and suitable nesting- 

 haunts for these pilfering wanderers. Our Magpie, 

 or some very closely allied form, is found almost all 

 over Europe and North Africa, but we never met 

 with it in such abundance anywhere as in the north 

 of Ireland, where we on one occasion counted two 

 hundred and seventy-three of this species in a three 



